Government weighing inoculation of entire population against smallpox
By Ellis Shuman December 23, 2002
Israeli officials said a decision is expected within the coming days whether to inoculate the entire population against the smallpox virus as part of the country's final preparations for a possible U.S. attack on Iraq.
Israeli officials said a decision is expected within the coming days whether to inoculate the entire population against the smallpox virus as part of the country's final preparations for a possible U.S. attack on Iraq. A mass inoculation process would take about a month. A secret CIA document released for publication said Saddam Hussein planned to use biological weapons against Israel in 1991.
According to the 1992 CIA document, made public over the weekend by the National Security Archive, a local research organization, the Iraqi president sent three MiG-21 planes to bomb Israel with regular bombs during the first stages of the Gulf War in order to check whether they were able to penetrate Israel's air defenses, Israel Radio reported. At the second stage, three more planes armed with conventional weaponry and a Sukhoi airplane armed with biological weapons were to be sent to Israel. The plan failed when the first three planes were shot down by Allied forces shortly after takeoff, the radio reported.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's aide Raanan Gissin said the government would "have to decide in the next few days [whether to inoculate the entire Israeli population] ... it all depends on how possible the scenario is. We are now covering all possible contingencies and this is another element of it."
The Health Ministry has already inoculated more than 15,000 medical and rescue workers against the smallpox virus and has enough immunizations to vaccinate Israel's 6.6 million population, Dr. Boaz Lev, the ministry's director-general, told Army Radio. If necessary, he said the ministry can inoculate the entire population within days.
But Yediot Aharonot reported that the ministry's plan would be enacted in stages, and it would take about a month to inoculate the entire population.
"In the very near future, the decision will be made to substantially increase the scope of those being vaccinated against smallpox," Lev told Ha'aretz. "When the decision is made, we will recommend to all residents of the country to receive the inoculation because the dangers from the disease outweigh the possible complications from the inoculation... There are enough inoculations for everybody."
Quoted by the Associated Press, Lev said, "I think that in the end we will have no choice but to inoculate because of this sword that threatens us."
In August, the cabinet authorized the inoculation of some 15,000 "first response" personnel but a cabinet communique said "there is no immediate danger of a smallpox attack on the State of Israel. Therefore, immunizing the entire population of the State is not called for at present." Health Ministry officials said at the time they believed the decision to inoculate the entire population would be made within a few months.
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